Detail Game

This idea comes from Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff's
Community of Writers. It is helpful in getting students
accustomed to class participation and using
descriptive detail. The activity is fun and always gets everybody
involved -- the wilder the class gets with their ideas,
the better. You will ask students to look at an object and use descriptive detail -- stressing the five
senses -- to reveal something about the object to the
audience. You can bring an object from home, the odder
the better, and have them come up with as much
description as they can about it. You can often have
them launch into a narrative by beginning to build a story
around your object.